£100 million sounds like a lot. And apparently that will be the new Newcastle manager’s transfer budget. But that only tells half the story.
On top of that, the report states that Isaac Hayden is unlikely to leave Newcastle for anything less than £15 million, which would take the Toon’s transfer budget over the £100 million mark.
That certainly is a decent amount of money, but it’s not something that should be celebrated as a new act of kindness from Mike Ashley. If Rafa Benitez had stayed at the club, he’d have received the same amount of money. Nothing has changed.
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The club’s stance is still that the initial budget is £60 million, plus whatever is raised from player sales. So the new manager won’t be getting a superior war chest. The club have to sell to buy as always.
And the trust certainly isn’t there from Newcastle fans. Time and time again, we’ve sold players for big money and not seen the money fully reinvested into the playing squad.
Who will be the manager tasked with rebuilding a severely depleted squad? There’s a four-man shortlist, and it’s up to Lee Charnley to make the right call.
Although, the right call was just to give Rafa what he wanted and let him take the club forward. But never mind, we all make mistakes…some more than others.